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The Father
The leader of the Samaritans, Alastor's Father, The man behind the Crusaders, etc. Over the centuries, there have been very few villains who could challenge the sheer influence of the mysterious Father. Back to Index Biography As expected from one of the oldest and shadowy beings in existence, the Father's origins are steeped in mystery. It is known, however, that he was born centuries before the Hunger Lord's war against the ancient Crusaders. During this same time, the Father managed to unite his splintered and warring people under his rule (Thus, earning his patriarchal title). However, his desire for power only increased and the Father began implementing plans for Galactic conquest. Using the vast and ancient powers and resources of the Samaritans, the Father began slowly spreading his influence over the next few hundred years. However, this ultimately backfired when the Hunger Lord came to see him as a credible threat to his rule and quickly put an end to his expansion. Licking his wounds in isolation, the Father came to believe that a straightforward takeover of the Galaxy would be impossible: Instead, he would remain in the shadows and subtly manipulate events until all potential rivals were eliminated, at which point he would take control. The Father gathered what was left of his followers and disappeared, while setting events in motion that would determine the future in many ways. Unlike most would be conquerors, the Father planned on eliminating "evil" factions rather then "good" ones: the Hunger Lord had taught him that heroes were much less dangerous than villains. To this end, the Father created the Assassins Guild (To eliminate potential rivals), sped up the process of Interstellar civilization (Although the full extent of his involvement in the P.T.D, Republic, Alliance & Confederacy is unknown), took down many would be warlords and finally united the entire Samaritan race under his command, moving them into the shadows and regulating there existence to little more than myth. However, his influence was not absolute: most prominently, the Father was terrified of the Hunger Lord's final living servant, Ahab, and thus stayed out of the War Droid Empire's business completely. Eventually, the Father saw that his subtle manipulations would be far from enough to dethrone the many contenders for his throne: He would have to reestablish something like the Crusader Order, the final members of which had died out not long after the Hunger Lord's defeat. To this end, the Father briefly moved to one of the few planets to still known to contain a enclave of Crusader knowledge: Eriadu. While there, he took to wearing the traditional dress of the Crusader and telling stories of the greater Galaxy to everyone who would listen, in hopes that one of them would eventually retake the mantel of the Crusaders. His plan, as unlikely as it was, eventually bore fruit in the form of Fredrick. Over the next few decades, the Father's plans bore increasing fruit. He gained a powerful servant in the form of Jade. The Assassins guild under the command of Chang transformed the hot headed Jason into a perfect weapon against evil. The Bio-form Cloe become a close Allie of Kanos. And Kanos himself finally permanently removed Lord Ahab as a threat. In general, the Father's plans worked perfectly, as his agents were now in power in most Interstellar governments and the Crusaders were quickly removing any force capable of stopping the Samaritans. Although the Father mostly remained inactive during Ixil's time as a Crusader (Most likely out of the idea that the equally manipulative Crusader would notice his actions) he took a much more impactful role during Samantha's time as Crusader, even directly interacting with her as the leader of the Assassins Guild. After Samantha's mental "death", and with no respective replacements for the role of Crusader in sight, the Father approached the former Crusader's new personality Shaman and fathered a son with her (Although both Alastor and Samantha gave the impression that it was NOT voluntary.) to be raised as the heir to her legacy. Through an unknown series of events, the son (Alastor) did become the sixth Crusader. However, he was a bitter and resentful man and the Father was worried he was to close to becoming a obstacle, rather than a advantage. This was not helped when Alastor came to close to discovering the Samaritans secret, leading to the Father opening a rift between his Universe and that of Fredrickson. Determined to put a stop to this, the Father took the identity of a lowly Paladin healer and joined Alastor's group, where he could keep a closer eye on him. He also eventually had Fredrickson (Who was aware of the Samaritans influence, if uncaring) assassinated. However, the Father ultimately went a step to far when he attempted to destroy the Crusader Limbo (Having come to realize they would be more of a threat than anything else), resulting in the death of one of Alastor's allies, Grace. At this point, the angry Crusader reviled that he had known of the Fathers masquerading as Sora from the start but had pragmatically allowed his Father's plans to remove several more would be conquerors before confronting him. The Father escaped his son's wrath, although he was followed to the Samaritans hidden base of power. The small army of Samaritans and various other servants proved unable to stop Alastor (And his squads of combat droids, Tam and a briefly resurrected Samantha) and Father and Son soon confronted each other a final time. Alastor gained the upper hand and briefly contemplated allowing the Father to live, before decapitating him so that he could retire and allow Jade to take over as Crusader. Thus ended the Samaritans. Odds & Ends The Father was (probably) a Male Samaritan thousands of years old. The Samaritans were a race of powerful shape shifters, one of the first races to develop interstellar travel and civilization. As Shape-Shifters, Samaritans could live extremely long (The only known species with a longer life expectancy being the Nomads) and were practically unkillable, due to instantaneously "shifting" away even severe damage. That being said, certain weapons (Such as ancient Crusader blades found on Serd and a ticked off Fredrickson) were capable of killing them and the Father in particular could only "shift" his form with a great deal of concentration and pain, owing to severe wounds sustained in his encounter with the Hunger Lord. Most Samaritans, especially the Father, were also known for there genus level intellect. Obviously, the Father (And all Samaritans) was also free from the affects of old age. Although neither would admit it, there were more than a few similarities between the Father and Ixil: both relied more on manipulation and long term planning than any personal skill or power. Unlike most Samaritans, the Father would actually spend lengthy amounts of time in each of his forms, allowing him to develop a wide range of abilities. Unlike most of his kind, the Father's fighting style relied more on traditional combat tactics than fast paced "Shifting" in order to gain an advantage. An experienced swordsman, the Father was skilled enough to out-duel Samantha and a majority of the Emperor's Guard, Paladins & Sun Cult during this time, although Clark and Kain were capable of stalemating him in a one on one duel. While masquerading as Sora, the Father made sure to show himself as a unremarkable duelist, normally displaying the least amount of skill out of all the Exterminators. However, when his identity was reviled he quickly dispelled this notion and engaged Alastor (A masterful duelist in his own right) on equal footing. Although he was very knowledgeable and experienced with arcane lore, the Father was ultimately nothing spectacular when it came to the supernatural, demonstrating nothing beyond the telepathy, telekinesis and energy powers common to master level warriors. The Father never demonstrated a preference for any one weapon (Or any one type of weapon) and was willing to use almost anything he could get his hands on. While acting as the leader of the Assassins Guild, the Father wielded a traditional and mundane red bladed Phaseblade, while as Sora he wielded the original Paladins yellow twin bladed Phaseblade, although Alastor claimed he was less skilled with it than he was with more standard weaponry.